That's How It Is
by Sash-romancefreak
Summary: Ryan finds out he isn't biologically related to Sharpay through something pretty stupid and pointless. He has to struggle through this and the fact that he has developed a crush on Sharpay.
1. Chapter 1

Hello there. I'm Ryan Evans. Why am I here, you ask? Why am I in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the storm? Why am I so lonely and depressed? How did I lose everyone I care about and everything I've worked for so fast? When did my life suddenly turn upside down? Well, I can answer those questions in two words.

Love stinks. That's all there is to it. Forget about all those stories about princesses and princes and finding your one true love. Because the fact is, that's not how it works in the real world. Love is never that simple. There are twists and turns and tons of roadblocks in the way. And once you get, then what? It destroys you, that's what. It gets inside of you and tears you apart. Trust me, it's just not worth it. Get out of it while you can, until it gets you too.

Now I know why they use to have arranged marriages. It saves everyone a whole lot of trouble from falling in love. The worst thing is, you can't help who you love. And you can't fall out of love either. Once you're in there's no way out. Sometimes I think it would be better if you _could _choose who you love. But then everyone would fight over who would love who. It just wouldn't work that way.

Getting to my point, the reason I'm here is because I fell in love with, in society's eyes, the wrong person. Love is the reason why I'm so miserable. How? That's a long story. But I've got time. I don't really have anything to do.

You might want to know what happened after callbacks for the winter musical. Sharpay and I formed a truce with Troy and Gabriella. We're now friends with them and Chad and Taylor. Sharpay still has her old attitude and personality, but she's a lot nicer now. She's not perfect, but at least she's trying. No one can change overnight, right?

Anyway, getting to my story, I was walking home from school with Troy one day (Sharpay and Gabriella had gone to the mall together) when he asked me a question. In fact, if I wasn't so down on myself right now and if I was thinking clearly, I could probably pin this all back to Troy. And that, my friends, is where my story begins.

A/N What do you think about it so far? Sorry it's so short. But prologues usually are pretty short.


	2. Talking With Troy

Chapter 1: Talking with Ryan 

Troy and I had been talking about random stuff on the way home. "You and Sharpay coming to one of the winter musical performances?" Troy had asked casually.

"Yep," I nodded, grinning slightly. Even though I wasn't in it, it was a lot of fun to watch musicals too.

"Which one?"

"Um…" I thought for a second. "The one on Friday."

Troy just nodded. We walked in silence for a few minutes. Troy finally spoke up. "Uh, Ryan?"

"Yeah?" From what I could see, he was trying to gather up courage to ask me something. I had no idea what though.

"You and Sharpay have starred in all the theater productions the school has had, right?" Troy questioned a little nervously.

I stared at him with a puzzled look. Why was he asking such an obvious question? Everyone in school knew the answer. "Yeah. Where've you been?" I figured he was trying to ask me something, but didn't want to offend me or something.

Troy ignored my comment. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but have you two had to kiss?"

I relaxed when that was all he asked. "Yep," I said as if it was no big deal. It _wasn't_ a big deal to me. But apparently it was a big deal to Troy, because his reaction took me by surprise.

"Yep!" he repeated my answer, acting if I was crazy.

I just rolled my eyes. "Uh, yes! Most plays and musicals are romantic to some degree, so there's obviously going to be some kissing involved."

Troy didn't seem satisfied with my answer. He had stopped walking and I walked ahead of him. He ran to catch up to me and walked beside me. "So, you've had to kiss every single time?"

"Not every time," I said truthfully. "We've been able to get around it a few times, but most of the time we've had to kiss."

"How can you be so calm about it?" Troy was almost yelling now. He seemed pretty mad too. I had no idea why. What was the big deal? "She's your sister!"

By then I had just about enough of his attitude. I stopped and stepped in front of him, blocking him path. "You know nothing about acting," I stated simply and resumed walking. "If you knew anything about theater you'd know that when you're acting you're not yourself, you're a character. When Sharpay and I are acting we aren't brother and sister. We're _characters_. The kissing doesn't mean anything. Get it?"

I shoved my hands in my pockets as we walked along. I had on a rather annoyed expression. I was quite fed up with Troy. He was making this into something a lot bigger than it actually was.

Troy thought for a moment as he took everything in that I said. He nodded, but still tried to argue, "That may be so, but it still seems wrong."

"What do you want us to do?" I demanded. "Refuse to kiss? The whole show would be ruined!"

"I'm not saying you shouldn't kiss," Troy tried to argue. "I'm just saying you shouldn't act like it's so normal."

"For us it is normal," I retorted, starting to raise my voice. "We've been doing this for a long time. It doesn't bother us anymore."

"But she's your sister!" Troy repeated what he said earlier.

"There is nothing wrong with kissing your sister!" I cried. When I realized what I said, I covered my mouth with my hands. Troy gave me a really scared look and began to back away from me. I had to try to cover up. "I meant in theater!"

Troy came closer to me, but still looked scared. He suddenly got a quizzical look on his face. "Wait… do you like it when you kiss?"

My eyes widened at Troy's question. I couldn't believe he asked that! I waved my hands in front of myself defensively. "What? No, no! Are you suggesting that have a crush on Sharpay?"

Troy gave a small nod. "Well, yeah."

I was in complete shock after that. I didn't know how to respond at first. "I do not like Sharpay!" I finally explained.

"Ryan! You don't like Sharpay! I can't believe my ears!" I heard a female voice cry out.

It was Taylor. We had arrived at my house. Taylor was standing in front of it. I groaned at her. Everything I said that day seemed to be said at the wrong time. "I meant like like," I explained. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm looking for Sharpay. Is she home?" Taylor asked simply.

I shook my head. "No. She's at the mall with Gabriella."

"Ok. I better go then. Bye!" she gave a small wave before running off.

I turned to Troy and glared at him. "Let's go study," I retorted angrily. Troy nodded and we headed inside.

I hated showing my anger at Troy like that, but he had made me so mad! I couldn't help it. And what's worse, even though I knew he was wrong, the idea kept bugging at me. No matter what I did it wouldn't leave me alone. Troy had really messed my mind up this time.


	3. Strange Feelings

A/N Thanks for all the reviews!

Chapter 2: Strange Feelings

Sharpay came home about ten minutes after Troy left. I was hanging out in the living room and was startled when she walked in the door. I glanced up at her. She had on a nice smile, and was carrying two heavy looking bags.

"Hello Ryan," Sharpay greeted me cheerfully.

A shiver went down my spine when she spoke to me. I was reminded of my earlier conversation with Troy. I gave Sharpay a weak smile. "Hey Shar," I said, a bit nervously. I wasn't sure why. There was nothing to be nervous about, right? "Well, I gotta go do, uh, this thing-" I trailed off as a stood up and headed towards my room, looking back at Sharpay.

"Ok then," she nodded with a hint of confusion in her voice.

I then bolted to my room and slammed the door shut. I was just glad to be out of there. After what Troy said, it was really awkward to be around Sharpay. The rest of the night and most of the next day (Saturday) I tried to avoid her as best as possible. It had obviously been getting on her nerves because she locked me in my room Saturday afternoon and demanded an explanation.

"Ryan, why have you been avoiding me?" Sharpay started casually.

I tried to act dumb. "What? I haven't been avoiding you." My nervousness was apparent in my tone.

Sharpay just rolled her eyes. She held me straight and looked right into my eyes. "Tell me the truth," she said sternly.

I tried to look away, but to no avail. I was always weak when she did. "Ok! I was!" I blurted out.

Sharpay gave a satisfied smirk, but then her face softened to concern. "Why?" she asked softly. She led my over to my bed and we both sat down.

I looked away from Sharpay. I wouldn't be able to talk to her about this if I looked at her. "Well, you see, Troy and I were talking yesterday, and he said something about us that's not true, and we were both getting all defensive. That guy has a way of getting inside your head an making you crazy."

Sharpay put her hand over mine in attempt to make me feel better. "If you know it's not true what's the big deal?" she asked with a soothing voice. "Who cares what Troy thinks?"

I somehow managed to turn and look at Sharpay. I sighed softly. "You care what other people think."

"But you don't," Sharpay said, giving me a faint smile. "I like that about you."

I couldn't help but smile back at her. I felt a lot better. "You're right. Thanks."

Sharpay leaned over and hugged me. "Anytime Ry," she whispered in my ear then she pulled away. She squeezed my hand once before standing up. "I'm gonna go now. Talk to you later."

"Yeah," I nodded as she headed out the door. I smiled to myself. My smile turned into a frown when I realized something. When Sharpay touched my hand, why did I feel a weird tingling feeling go through my body. I shook the thought away and tried not to think about it.

That wasn't the only time something like that happened. The second time occurred the next week while Sharpay and I were watching the winter musical. It was right before "Breaking Free" during a really romantic scene.

Without knowing it, I had put my arm around Sharpay and leaned against her. She nudged me slightly. I realized what I was doing and quickly sat up straight, blushing like crazy. Why had I subconsciously done that? I didn't know the answer. But I did know that nothing seemed to be making sense lately.

The last time happened the next day. It was Saturday night, and Sharpay was on a date with Zeke, who she's been going out with since callbacks. I was in the living room watching TV. It was about 8:45 PM. I figured Sharpay would be home in an hour or so. I was so wrong.

Not even a minute later I heard the front door bang open. I turned off the TV and looked up to see Sharpay standing there. She had a sad expression on her face and looked like she was about to cry. I instinctively ran over to her and wrapped my arms around her. "Shar, what's wrong?" I asked with concern, although I had a good guess at the answer already.

"Zeke broke up with me!" Sharpay cried. She buried her face into my shoulder and began to sob. My whole body flinched, but I ignored it and held her tightly.

"He just doesn't know what he's missing," I said encouragingly.

"No!" Sharpay exclaimed. "It's not him. It's me! Ryan, what's wrong with me?"

I pulled her away from and looked into her eyes. "Shar, I've known you my whole life, and I can assure you that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you," I answered truthfully. I brought her over to the couch so we could both sit down.

"Then why am I all alone? No one cares about me." Sharpay wiped away her tears, but they just came back.

I hated seeing her like this. But at the same time I liked comforting her. It made me feel good. "What about me? I care a lot about," I said in reply to Sharpay's comment. I gave her another hug. "I love you, Shar. You know that. And some day you'll meet some guy and you'll both fall in love."

Sharpay sniffed and looked at me hopefully. "You really think they're something out there for me?"

I gave her a gentle smile. "I know so. You just have to be patient and wait."

Sharpay smiled sweetly and hugged me. "Thanks," she whispered softly. I smiled back at her and nodded. "I better go clean up." She stood up and walked away. I was left there staring after her.

What was weird was that I felt something different when I was with her. It wasn't the usual feeling I got when I comforted her. I don't even know how to explain it. It was just different. And it wasn't like any feeling I've ever had before. It scared me. No, it downright freaked me out. What was wrong with me?


	4. Mark

Chapter 3: Mark

"Do you know what's wrong with me?" I had asked Chad the next day after explaining everything about the weird situation I had found myself in. Of coarse, I left out Sharpay's name. I admit, Chad probably wasn't the best person to talk to about this. But I didn't know whom else to turn to. I didn't feel comfortable talking to Gabriella or Taylor about it. I couldn't tell Troy. I had in my mind that he was somehow linked to this. And I certainly couldn't talk to Sharpay about it. The only person left was Chad.

"There's nothing wrong with you," Chad laughed, making me feel uneasy. "You just have a crush."

"What!" I cried in total shock. Did he just say what I thought he said? "Are you sure?"

"From what I can tell, yes," Chad replied. He was a little freaked out at my reaction and kept giving me a weird look. "Maybe even more."

I fell back into a chair, my eyes opened wide. "This cannot be happening to me," I said, more to myself than to Chad.

Chad just looked at me like I was crazy. "What's wrong with you?" he exclaimed. "Haven't you ever had a crush before?"

"Yes! I've had one or two," I said defensively. I sighed. How could I explain this to him? "It's not that. It's just that- this is a different situation than most people have."

Chad's look of shock turned into confusion. "How is it different?" Without even waiting for a reply, he asked another question. "Who _is _your crush?"

I turned silent and turned away. After about a minute I looked back at Chad. "Just trust me on this when I say I really can't tell you."

Chad nodded slowly. "Ok." He glanced at the clock. "I gotta go. See you tomorrow at school."

"Yeah," I mumbled as Chad left.

I was really stressed out the next morning. I sat at the kitchen table with my parents, waiting for Sharpay to finish getting ready. I had to think of something to get my mind off of things, so I started to roll my tongue. M parents noticed this and gave me a confused look. I stopped and looked at them with the same expression.

"What?" I asked them.

"You can roll your tongue," my dad pointed out.

"So?" I was totally lost. Where was this going? Hadn't they seen me roll my tongue before? What was the big deal?

"Neither your dad or I can," my mom explained.

"And tongue rolling is a dominant gene," Dad continued. "Therefor if two parents can't roll their tongues, none of their offsprings are able to."

"Oh," I nodded, slowly taking everything in. "Well, that's really weird."

Before any of use could say anything else, Sharpay came walking into the kitchen. I flinched when I saw her.

"Come on, Ryan, let's go," she said cheerfully, pulling me up from my chair. I sighed softly and followed her out the door.

When we got to school I managed to slip away from Sharpay. I wanted some time to think alone before class started. I soon found out that wasn't going to happen. Someone standing by some lockers caught my eye. He was a boy my age named Marc. But what I found interesting was that he kept trying to roll his tongue, failing every time.

I curiously strolled over to him. "Hey," I began. "You can't roll your tongue?"

Mark stopped trying. "Yeah," he sighed. "And both my parents and grandparents can't. I know that it's possible that I'm not able to, but it's still weird."

I nodded. "I know what you mean. I can roll my tongue and my parents can't."

Mark suddenly got a mischievous look on his face that scared me a bit. "You don't think-"

"No," I cut him off, knowing what he was thinking. "That is highly unlikely."

Mark didn't look satisfied with my answer. "Aw, come on! It's still possible."

I simply rolled my eyes in reply. "Let's just ask Gabriella about this, ok? She knows a lot about genetics."

"Ok," Mark gave a small nod. "I'll come find you during free period. We can talk to her then."


	5. Finding Out the Truth

Chapter 4: Finding Out the Truth 

"You two are overreacting," Gabriella chucked. It was free period. Mark, Gabriella, and I were in the empty music room. It was the only place we could find to be alone. Mark and I had just explained to Gabriella what we had found out.

"It is possible for your parents and grandparents to be able to roll their tongues and you can't," she said to Mark. "Some along your family line must not have been able to roll their tongue." She turned to me. "It is very unusually that your parents can't roll their tongues and you can. That's usually impossible. What probably happened is there was a mistake when your DNA was copied when you were being created. It's nothing to worry about."

I stared at Gabriella blankly. I didn't catch any of that. But if she said I shouldn't worry, then I wouldn't. "But Mark didn't look as convinced. Gabriella glanced up at the clock. She slowly stood up.

"I better go," she said, starting to leave. "See you guys later."

I turned to Mark, "See, I was right. There's nothing to worry about."

"Maybe," Mark frowned. "But there's still a chance. We should investigate this!"

I rolled my eyes. No wonder I had never been friends with him. He was way too crazy. "And what do you suggest we do?"

Mark thought for a moment. He suddenly snapped his fingers in excitement. "I've got it!" he exclaimed joyfully. "There's a footprint on out birth certificates, right?" He went on before I had a chance to say anything. "Well, all we got to do is make new foot prints and compare them. What do you think?"

I shrugged. It would be amusing. And it'd get my mind off of Sharpay. Why not? "Ok," I nodded in agreement. "Come over to my house after school."

Mark grinned from ear to ear. "Perfect."

Later that day Mark and I were standing in my living room floor. We had out our birth certificates, two pieces of paper, a magnifying glass, and a giant inkpad with ink. Mark volunteered himself to go first. He placed his foot in the ink and gently pressed it against one of the papers.

As he went off to wash his foot, I did the same thing. When we were both clean we lay down on our stomachs with the new footprints and birth certificates in front of us. Mark took the magnifying glass and examined his two footprints.

Mark set the magnifying glass down. His face was pale in shock. "They're not the same," he whispered so low I could barely hear it.

I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. With sweating hands and a pounding heart, I picked up the magnifying glass and compared my two footprints. My heart literally stopped for a second. The footprints were different! I shook my head in disbelief. How could this be?

Quickly and nervously, I snatched Mark's birth certificate and compared it with my new footprint. I did the same visa versa. I looked at Mark with a blank expression. "When we switch them, they match!" I cried.

Mark's eyes widened. "So that means…"

"We were switched at birth!" I exclaimed.

"Woah," Mark said, sitting up. "I know I'm the one who had the idea, but that was just for fun. I had no idea I was actually right!"

At that moment nothing seemed right. The world around me was spinning. I felt really sick. This could not be happening to me. It just couldn't! I had a very hard time dealing with change, and this was the biggest change to ever happen to me! Ok, maybe it wasn't really a change. But it was still a life changing experience!

"Hello Ryan," Sharpay's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see her standing in front of us. She had a confused expression on her face. I guess it would look pretty weird in her point of view. "Ryan, what's going on?"

I leaped up and placed my hands on her shoulders. "Sharpay!" I exclaimed. I pointed to Mark and my little experiment. "You're not really my sister!"

Sharpay's eyes widened before she fainted. I quickly got behind her and caught her in my arms. Aw geez! This was the last thing I needed.

"You made her faint!" Mark pointed out rather loudly."

"I didn't mean to!" I said defensively.

"What do we do now?"

My eyes scanned the room. "My parents should be home soon. You call yours and get them over here as soon as possible. I'll take care of Sharpay."

"Do you need help?" Mark offered.

"No!" I said a bit angrily. Mark immediately backed off. My face softened. What was I doing? I shook it off and headed for Sharpay's room. "I'm so sorry," I whispered to her. What had I gotten myself into?


End file.
